The History of Rome: The Complete Works

By: Titus Livy, Cyrus Edmunds - translator, William A. McDevitte - translator

Narrated by: Alastair Cameron

Length: 89 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Titus Livy's only known surviving work is a monumental history of Rome that was originally written in Latin. It is estimated that Livy's The History of Rome was written between 27 and 9 BC and covers the legends of Aeneas, the fall of Troy, the city's founding in 753 BC, and Livy's account ends with the reign of Emperor Augustus.

The History of Rome is a must-have for anyone interested in ancient history and the Roman era. With colorful detail and intriguing insight, Titus brings to life some of the most turbulent times in human history. Most scholars believe Titus Livy was born sometime between 64 and 59 BC. He is estimated to have died between AD 12 to 17, leaving behind one of the most complete works on ancient Rome available to modern historians.

Public Domain (P)2018 A.R.N. Publications

Bird's eye view

Livy 'quickly' covers the pre-republican and republican periods of rome. Up to and including Caesar and Octavian.
This isnt a detailed breakdown, but it is a detailed almanac, briefly mentioning the most salient happenings on a yearly basis.
I think this book will greatly compliment any previous or future roman history books you read. it will leave you wanting if read on its own, as it lacks a lot of the mythic flair of something like Aenids, or epic like the gallic wars or the siege or jerusalem.

EDITOR in absentia est

As a kid of 14 or so, I had read Theodor Mommsen’s “Römische Geschichte“ (yup, the whole thing)(nerd!) so I thought why not listen to this.

Generally speaking, I enjoyed this very much. At 89h, it’s repetitive and loooong, but okay. It still gave me a different perspective (although I didn’t remember much from kids days), I think. The pathos comes over very well. It’s well-read.

Here’s the only rub: did you realize Cleopatra lived in the 8th or 7th century BC? Probably not, because she actually died 30 BC. For some reason, on the long way from Titus Levy -> translation -> reading for Audible, someone had the marvelous idea to inject Christian years - like the Romans were counting backwards towards the arrival of Jesus Christ…. And, for that, completely insanely wrong years… I first got confused and thought maybe it’s got to do with the fact the last books are really just titles and fragments, but no. Somebody took three dices, rolled them and added that to the script. WHY? Who and why did this? Why did no one catch this, before it after recording? You just need to have watched that old Cleopatra movie to know this is insanely wrong! C’mon!

Narrator is pretty good

narrator is pretty good, atleast he's not mono tone and boring like most other history narrators are. This is as far as I understand and exact translation so don't expect any context or to understand it at all if you haven't done prior research, the Roman people at the time it was written would have understood it but we are 2000 years removed from their time

Source material for all Western Historians

Satisfying read for those who get addicted to history and find themselves digging deeper into the source material used by modern historians. Livy, Plutarch, Gibbons, Oman and, for me, Will Durant form the foundation for a self educated historian. This book gives 793 years of detail behind all the generalizations and examples found in the best books on western civilization.

One distraction you'll have to 'look past': the narrator reads what appears to be typos regarding Roman versus Christian years. Especially in the last book, Livy is referring to the Roman year but the narrator continues to use "B.C." as a suffix to each year mentioned. Example: the lifespan of Julius Caesar was from 100-44 B.C. Confusing Roman for Christian, the narrator incorrectly describes Caesar's life happening in the late "600 BC" time frame. Ooops. Not Livy's fault...

Good version. Negatives for the eminent Livy

Titus Livius, who modern people call Livy, was a friend and contemporary of Caesar Augustus. He wrote this book in Classical Greek, which makes it very awkward. I think the translation probably allows itself to keep some of the foibles, the most glaring of which is the tense. I can't think of another author who uses tense so strangely, but I think it is probably a good rendering of the style.

One reason to read this book: If you are curious about 'Discourses on Livy' by Machiavelli, shouldn't you read Livy himself first?

One reason to delay reading this one: There are a lot of ancient historians who were more thought provoking than he was, in my opinion.

Still, this isn't a bad read. The later books are disappointingly fragmentary. This version has what remains of Livy's complete works. He wrote 146 books shortly following the Battle of Actium, in which he participated and here bears witness. This prolific writer takes us from the founding of Rome to events during his own life. So does Cassius Dio. I think Cassius Dio is somewhat more trustworthy, personally. Perhaps too much can be made of Livy's friendship with Augustus, but there is a potential motive of propagandizing for Augustus in the entire work. There is also a certain sincerity here-- if you ever thought about writing a history of a country from its earliest origins, Livy accomplished that. It's a great accomplishment. One striking feature of the narrative is how often ancestors of later emperors are subjects in it. Livy will give you an introduction to Sextus Julius Caesar, illustrious ancestor of Julius Caesar. The families of Augustus, Galba, and Nero are described. Livy wrote during the reign of Augustus and did not know about these latter two emperors. He also talks about a certain Flaccus, ancestor of a much later infamous Egyptian governor. There was a continuity between the Republican period and the Imperial period in terms of which families had access to power. One thing that is just very strange, but charming, about most ancient historians is how they report about miracles and dreams. Winston Churchill once wrote a book about his dreams during WWII, but few world leaders tell us what their dreams are anymore. Livy loves to tell us about weird miracles that some people say happened. I thought that one highlight of Livy, and it was something I don't remember from another source, was about the worshipers of Bacchus. They were banned from practicing their religion at one time and the accusations were really shocking. Livy tells that story with skill and detail.

The narrator did a great job. Livy loves writing run-on sentences. Luckily, the chapter breaks are short. If you want a stopping place, pause at chapter breaks.

A Fascinating 126 Hours of Listening

Judging the accuracy of Edmunds’ and McDevitt’s translation is beyond my ability, but it is certainly beautiful. Cameron’s reading is very good, although his voice often seems somewhat “tight” or strained. As presented, the recording is eighty-eight hours long; however, 70% is a comfortable listening speed, so the work is really about 126 hours long.

History reveals itself while telling history

Livy reveals more about himself and his times than he does about the history he is telling. Sit back and enjoy the experience. Don't let the story telling get in the way of what history is revealing about itself as it is told. My first time trying to read this story, I too felt it was muddled and foolish, but now I realized I was wrong and why this story is must reading today. History is worth the trouble to decode and its for the listener to discover for themself. Even with that aside, one will never get a better telling of Hannibal and the special hate the Romans had for him (and thank Father Jove for his defeat!) than from this book with the possible exception of Plutarch's Parallel Lives and, of course, Plutarch is Greek.

Navigation is atrocious!

It’s a Pity this is the only complete copy of Livy’s History. As a work of historiography, it’s one of the most comprehensive accounts of early Roman history from antiquity. And as a subject as a whole, Rome is by far my all-time favorite civilization to study, and I’d even go as far as admitting Ira an obsession. These are the only reasons I haven’t rated this recording lower! Narration is poor, navigation is abysmal! Good luck using it as a reference guide

The horrible book

The worst book I have ever listened to. Narrative is bad, subject would be interesting if you can get through the way it was written and read by.